Muntaka Mubarak, Asawase MP
Member of Parliament for Asawase in the Ashanti region Muntaka Mubarak has accused the Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu of sleeping on his job.
According to the Asawase MP, the minister has not been proactive in handling the suspected meningitis outbreak at the Kumasi Academy Senior High School which has killed six students since Friday.
He, however, insisted the students cannot be released to their parents given the circumstances until the cause of the deaths is rightly established.
Six students have died from the suspected meningitis in the school since Friday. This brings to 13, the total number of students who have died from the killer disease since April this year.
Speaking in Parliament Tuesday, the MP for Asawase – where the school is located – faulted authorities for their failure to unravel the cause of the deaths since the first incident happened in April.
But the Health Minister has refuted accusations of Hon. Muntaka. Speaking to Starr News’ Parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, the Health Minister insisted his outfit has done the needful given the situation.
“We have never delayed, people don’t understand health systems…after March we never saw the disease and it was like whatever plans they put in place seemed to be working until another thing happened.”
The Health Minister also revealed that samples have been taken from students of the school suspected to have died from meningitis.
According to Hon. Agyeman Manu, the samples were taken from both the dead and affected students and have been sent to the Noguchi Memorial Research Center for investigations.
He, however, added that medical experts strongly suspect the cause of the deaths to be meningitis.